Promotion!

I received a promotion today. Very nice timing and % increase. :) Yay me!

Settled In

We are finally settled into our new house. I love being here. We have an excellent backyard and plenty of space to spread out.

We decided to have the girls stay at their original schools, even though we are a bit over the boundary lines. But with Megan getting straight A's we felt it was worth the extra drive in the morning.

The fire pit out back is amazing. We are surrounded by oak trees, and were blessed with a nice pile of firewood to burn. I bought 3 oak benches at the Elko Traders Market over Memorial Day weekend. The benches are made from an old log cabin. They are the perfect addition. Much better than the old Adirondack chairs everyone else has.



The neighbors to our left are an older retired couple. NICE.

Unfortunately we haven't been camping much this year - the new house took up a lot of our time.









We have a hunting trip planned again over Thanksgiving/Sam's Birthday. I am looking forward to Charmagnes Ham Gravy & Biscuits!

Berly Weekley

My grandmother, Beryl Weekely (90) passed away August 11th 2010 after an extended shit-storm which started with her car accident during the famous Iowa flood. She was never herself after that.


Rebecca & I wearing hot pink - Grandma B's Best Color


Grandma B loved to visit Hawaii. She went every year, during the good years. I remember her bringing me back a beautiful Lei and a Hawaiian dress when I was 6. I loved that damn ugly dress!

This is the lei I had commissioned by Karla Scheiner - the best florist in the world. Thank-you Karla!


We threw the lei into the Indian Creek - by the Nature Center where Grandma B. spend a lot of time volunteering and teaching classes. She loved her some nature. (Indian Creek Nature Center)


Beautiful glass doors to the sanctuary at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids. Grandma B donated thousands of dollars and hours upon hours of her time to this church.

After the service we had a reception in the church basement, per Presbyterian Protocol... The ladies of the church were very gracious.


Sally (Jones) Shannon (aunt) and her daughter Megan Shannon (1st Cousin) flew in from Clearwater Florida


Emily (Camp) Curtis, my 1st cousin came in from Los Angeles (Em was always my favorite cousin)










Matts hair - longer than mine, but maybe not quite as long as Sams.



All of us.

RIP Grandma B. Miss you. Say hi to Susan, Ev and Franco for us.

House Closing

Closed on the house finally :) Very excited as the house was appraised by the bank for quite a bit more than the mortgage.
- So, I can sell at a profit in 3 months if I need to. Nice to know there is already equity in the home.

New House Update

We will be closing on our house this month. FINALLY! Short sales take a lot of time, but are worth it if you can sit and wait for the bank.

Troy plans on putting in a horseshoe pit straight away & I plan on getting that hot tub going. It's all about the priorities :)

Pending having the spa guy come out and Troy digging the horseshoe pit, we will be hosting a House Warming/Thanks for Helping us Move (Again)/Engagement Party. Details on that shortly, but we are looking at a mid to late July party.

I'm sure there will be plenty of beer, fire, fireworks, hot tubing, horse shoeing etc.

Thanks in advance to all of your support this last year!

Megan's 15th Birthday

We started Megan's birthday celebration with "All You Can Eat Crab Legs" on Wednesday.
Megan ended up ordering 5 plates. I helped her stay on top of things by cracking the legs and making nice little crab meat piles for her. Delicious. - Crab is in direct competition with Lamb in my book. Hopefully prices & availability won't go up too much after this cluster F of an oil spill - Snow crab should be ok right?!

Megan has been saving all her $ for a new laptop. After straight A's this year, she really needs one! Her birthday cake was Tres Leches from Cafe Latte in St. Paul... "Three Milks" – sweetened condensed, cream and whole milk poured over rich sponge cake and finished with whipped cream and fresh raspberries.

Father Hennepin Camping

Father Hennepin Campgrounds

Our first camping trip of the year was at Father Hennepin on Lake Mille Lacs.
Due to a layover in St. Paul, we didn't arrive at our campsite till nearly 9:00pm Friday evening. The mosquitoes were TERRIBLE. Troy bought a backyard fogger and we were much more comfortable after that - check out the first photo of Sam's back to see the damage they did to my babies :( Poor kids were itching all weekend.

Glad to get back to tent camping for the weekend and looking forward to more s'mores and hot dogs on the fire this year.